The Lemonade Experiment

When trying to engage my almost seven year old daughter in a discussion about making more money I ran into the popular "lemonade stand" idea. Great idea of course, but at the end of the day we have to take the stand down and I said to her "also, mostly we only have time to set it up on the weekends, like saturday...I said"..

"Why not figure a way to brainstorm an idea online that might someday lead to making money even when you aren't around?!" ...was my response. Here's where the conversation went next...

Well, my wise daughter said to me,

Lauren: "why not just ask people to contribute Fifty Cents each...and if enough people do it then I won't have to keep putting the lemonade stand up..."

Me: "How much do you want to make from this?"

Lauren: " I don't know..maybe I could make a website lemonade stand!"

Me: "Why would people donate to you without getting anything?"

Lauren: " I don't know, maybe they want to help me!"

Me: "Why would people want to help someone they don't know?"

Lauren: " I don't know...the same reason you want me to help people that I don't know maybe..."

[sidebar: this statement killed me. After wondering if she's heard anything I say, she really really floored me with that.]

So this is what I proposed: She could ask for donations but only if she is willing to GIVE something in return. This could potentially teach her and reinforce the spirit of giving to others, and begin a healthy and positive respect for money and wealth. She has agreed to give:

• A real, custom picture deliverable by mail to a child afflicted with cancer for every $5.00 earned. She's a fantastic artist. I will post here each time she sends one of her custom pictures. If permission is granted, I will post the childs name who received it.
  

The Lemonade Experiment

So I decided to compromise and said that I would help her cause on this blog and if her donations exceeded her lemonade stand earnings than we will start her a full time website at the end of the summer. Her future site will be "The Lemonade Experiment" (or something similar :) So this starts the official "Lemonade Experiment For Wealth." You may donate to her cause on this page. If She succeeds we will start a new website that will be seen around the world as "The Lemonade Experiment."

When You feel the urge to donate to this cause/experiment go here:

Good luck Lauren! I will keep results posted here. You can donate her prescribed "50 cents" or whatever you choose when you push the "make donation" button. I programmed it so that you can put in whatever you like for donation.

Taking Time Out

Just taking time-out to wish all of you a happy Memorial Day weekend. With any observance, examine the purpose and make something of it...

Until next time.. Live well and prosper

Happy Memorial Day

Just taking time-out to wish all of you a happy Memorial Day weekend. With any observance, examine the purpose and make something of it...

Until next time...

The Chipping Principle

For years I have had a second job. One reason is to save money for summer time when my school counseling position is not always available. The other reason of course is just to have some extra cash to spend, save, or invest. I probably won't stop my second job (bartending) for a while but I am considering it. Some people have asked me how I can have a very serious professional career in counseling/clinical work and at the same time have a second job as a bartender?! Well, the combination isn't so bad really. And unlike other options like private practice, it helps so that I don't take myself or career too seriously to enjoy. Enough on that...

Anyway, it is possible that I might give up the second job in favor of more web-based income. One possibility is to simply build a network of websites and blogs that earn a little bit each day. Simple enough right?

It is simple, but not exactly EASY. Because like anything else it takes careful thought and persistent work. Not HARD work, but persistent work. So if this is my goal (to earn more from home and give up bartending) then I will:

• make it a defined goal
• set small objectives
• Chip away each day, or conform to set schedule

It's what I call the Chipping Principle of attaining a goal...in this case earning more money. The idea of passive income is very real...but it's like the field of dreams: "If you build it..."

Experiment Update

Here's an update on Experiment #1 for wealth building. It's no secret that a content rich blog or website can produce some handy semi-passive income.

The Blog: Florida Gulf Coast has produced already $3.71 in ad revenue. This is pretty amazing given the fact that it has such limited posts (3 or 4). I project that there is a lot of room for growth here expecially as I intend to add some more adspace as the content grows on the site.

I will keep updating the site as much as possible with quality content. The great thing is I am making more contacts in the Coastal Region of Florida as I do this, which enriches my experience when I travel to the region.

Gaining Experience

Technorati Profile

This is my first time visiting Technorati. What an experience. Each day I am setting small, manageable tasks such as:

1. sign up for technorati
2. update a blog or other site (not ALL my blogs)
3. write down new ideas while the commercials are on!

Even small steps like these will have an impact, I am sure.

Experiment #1

Ok so here goes. What if we run a little experiment and directly relate it to wealth building...

I'm not into get rich quick things, although I was at one time briefly. So how about we start with one website blog? The idea will be to reap the benefits of advertising revenue as the traffic and interest in the blog increases. Now, not being a web-marketing guru, this really IS an experiment.

But here's the thing...I might not be a blog or web genius, but I feel confident enough that something I love and have passion for will be shared by thousands and maybe millions of people the world over. So, onward!

In this post I will basically describe and outline the plan:

1. Create a basic mission statement:

"To create a content rich website blog that will attract quality related advertisements that will bring a steady flow of revenue.

2. Choose an area of focus:

I am choosing to focus on the Florida-Gulf-Coast. It is an area that I am very passionate about and I will be motivated to update this blogsite regularly.

3. Create advertisment opportunities:

To do this I will need quality content, a strong traffic presence, and the specific codes and programming to make this functional on whatever platform I choose (e.g. blogger, wordpress, or other ).

I will be posting results and progress routinely. This will be called Experiment #1. Stay tuned!

Think Wealth

While driving today I noticed something. I found that during my morning and afternoon drives I had been turning off the radio during commercial breaks for several weeks now. I also noticed where my mind would wander during this time.

What I found was that during each commercial break from the radio (usually ESPN radio) my mind would focus on its own to ideas for building wealth and related topics. Several specific and general ideas are allowed to come and go without "trying" to generate anything. The result of this has been my increased energy to maintain several different weblogs and even begin some design and programming of new personal and business websites.

How does this apply to wealth? Energy. It's similar to many ares of behavior and psychology. If I am constantly thinking about negative things in my life, my energy should as a result decline or at least be less successful. Compare that to thinking about wealth in a relaxed, healthy, positive way. Even practicing some imagery of your life when you become wealthy can have a wonderful impact resulting in a feeling of freedom, power, and sense of calm. It's not enough to think of an image of "being debt-free." Why? What takes it's place? There is a difference between thinking positive and negative. Debt-free is a thought about getting rid of something, while focusing on all of the results of a wealthy lifestyle actually fills your mind with positive images. This can lead to greater positive energy and even motivation to begin or continue an endeavor.

Try it!

Money Isn't Everything

It really isn't.

But...we all know that having enough money to care for the financial stressors in life can be a major relief, and, consequently lead to a greater sense of freedom. Afterall, money is not one of our basic psychological needs as a human being. Freedom, on the other hand, is. Along with Power, Love, and Belonging, and Fun they make up the core basic psychological needs. These were described by William Glasser in his classic writings on Reality Therapy and Control Theory.

But how do we attain freedom in our adult lives? Well if we have been conditioned to live beyond our means then financial freedom cannot exist. So unless we make a significant change in our behavior regarding spending/saving then we can't expect things to improve without some external force.

Conditioning:

If we are conditioned from a young age to be mindful and respectful of money we are much more likely to attain a sense of financial freedom. Having loads of money does NOT make one financially FREE. I propose that most of it hasn't anything to do with how much money one makes, but how they behave with the money they have.

So in part this relates to the "Starting Early" article from my last post. I hadn't connected it in this way until now but I can think of several friends of mine who are certainly not experiencing financial freedom yet they make an annual income that would make 5-10 families content.

Experiment:

It's too late for me to be conditioned from a young age (I'm nearly 38) but it's not too late for me to influence my own children's mindset regarding money, wealth, and freedom. I would love to hear from others about your experience regarding financial freedom.

Starting Early

I have an almost seven year old daughter and I feel that it's important have her think about money. There are many studies that point out that young adults today have a very poor respect for money and generally this leads to a very early relationship with debt. I don't want this for my kids and I expect you don't want it for yours.

To do my part I thought of offerring some ideas to help kids begin experimenting with money and wealth building from an early age. My ideas might not be convention, but some of them are.

Here are some thoughts, please share yours also.

• Start a website and add some money making options such as adsense and other revenue means. One that I recently helped my daughter start was CoolKids . It was fun for her and actually just started making a little advertising money.
• Open a bank account and make regular deposits to it, no matter how small.
• Create a product to sell! Kids have great ideas and even the silliest ideas can be marketed, especially on the web.
• When kids earn money for chores discuss their options with them: spend it, save it. Guide decisions.

These are just a couple of ideas for now, let's keep thinking of ideas to help our kids build for future wealth Now. Thanks for viewing and contributing.

Wealth Experiments

I am pretty sure there are millions of "gauranteed" ways of making millions on the internet. I'm also pretty sure based on my contacts that most of these "gauranteed" millions don't come true. So that leaves us with an opportunity...the chance to examine closely how we create or receive or "get" or "make" substantial wealth in our lives.

There are a couple of ways to "get rich quick" namely:

• Win The Lottery
• Inheritance
• Marry rich (not just a guy named Rich)

I suppose there are other quick ways but for most people these ways of building wealth aren't very realistic and I am not optimistic that any of these will happen in my life (I'm happily married to a non-millionaire, I don't play the lottery much, and I'm not in line for a major inheritance).

So anyway I decided to start some experiments in the area of wealth creation. I don't necessarily have a need for being wealthy, but perhaps others will find a path they might not have considered within these pages. So, as it is my first post, I'll leave you with this:

In the coming months I will explore several different experiments for accumulating wealth. I am not particularly comfortable with the borderline unethical money making schemes, so I'll try to avoid those. Instead, anything from investments to new or improved website ideas, and even using the law of attraction may come into play. Join me :)